The First 100: Mayor Langford hosts crime summit tomorrow

Mayor Langford is inviting all African American males in Birmingham, Alabama to attend a crime summit tomorrow evening beginning at 6 p.m. at Fair Park Arena. Two inmates from the St. Clair Correctional Facility will be on hand as well as a presentation of Plan 10/30 Why Am I Dying?/Do You Care?, an effort to reach out to this particular group and “change their mindset.”

There will also be a gun buy-back conducted by the SCLC tomorrow afternoon from 4:30 p.m. – 6 p.m. This flier has been received by The Terminal for purposes of distribution to anyone interested in attending tomorrow evening.

The mayor announced that he did not intend to allow the media to attend the event; we also assume that he will not allow new media to attend either. If you do attend tomorrow, we’d appreciate not necessarily a report on what was said, but for you to share your thoughts on the event.

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Until the 1950s, the purpose of police in the United States was generally considered to be “to prevent crime and disorder.” Then, the focus shifted to a “crime fighting” model. In the early 1980s, professors George Kelling and James Q. Wilson developed the “broken windows” idea, suggesting that a failure to control minor offenses damaged neighborhoods by creating a sense of public disorder. The theory was put to test with flying colors in New York City during the 1990s!
Recently, proactive community policing measures have reemerged and contributed to a drop in crime in one of New Jersey’s most notorious cities, Newark.
Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton, who led the efforts to reduce crime in New York during the 1990s, credited the use of computer mapping systems for his success in New York, and more recently, Los Angeles. For example, for the fifth consecutive year in 2006, crime dropped in Los Angeles by a rate of 8%. These figures bucked national and state trends, which largely saw violent crime increasing.
While in New York and now in L.A., Bratton pushed the departments to significantly expand use of the CompStat computer mapping system to pinpoint crime trends and identify specific areas requiring more policing. He then moved officers into areas with severe gang problems, and at the same time told officers to focus on smaller crimes that might eventually lead to larger ones (again, “Broken Windows” policing).

Until the 1950s, the purpose of police in the United States was generally considered to be “to prevent crime and disorder.” Then, the focus shifted to a “crime fighting” model. In the early 1980s, professors George Kelling and James Q. Wilson developed the “broken windows” idea, suggesting that a failure to control minor offenses damaged neighborhoods by creating a sense of public disorder. The theory was put to test with flying colors in New York City during the 1990s!
Recently, proactive community policing measures have reemerged and contributed to a drop in crime in one of New Jersey’s most notorious cities, Newark.
Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton, who led the efforts to reduce crime in New York during the 1990s, credited the use of computer mapping systems for his success in New York, and more recently, Los Angeles. For example, for the fifth consecutive year in 2006, crime dropped in Los Angeles by a rate of 8%. These figures bucked national and state trends, which largely saw violent crime increasing.
While in New York and now in L.A., Bratton pushed the departments to significantly expand use of the CompStat computer mapping system to pinpoint crime trends and identify specific areas requiring more policing. He then moved officers into areas with severe gang problems, and at the same time told officers to focus on smaller crimes that might eventually lead to larger ones (again, “Broken Windows” policing).

This event is targeting African American males in an effort to address the issue of Black on Black crime which has been a horrible reality both locally and nationally for many years. Other cities across the country have held similiar summits which have led to successful resolutions and a decrease in crime. There are many layers to the crime issue in our city and black on black crime is certainly one of them. It's going to take more than just a band-aid to solve our city's crime woes, meaning that we can't just think that "adding more cops" will instantly eliminate the crime factor in Birmingham, not in the long term anyway. Therefore, I feel that analyzing the deeper roots of why these types of crimes are taking place is long overdue and necessary. For that reason, I applaud the organizers of this event and I look forward to seeing the development of future initiatives that will address the other layers of our crime issues as well.

This event is targeting African American males in an effort to address the issue of Black on Black crime which has been a horrible reality both locally and nationally for many years. Other cities across the country have held similiar summits which have led to successful resolutions and a decrease in crime. There are many layers to the crime issue in our city and black on black crime is certainly one of them. It's going to take more than just a band-aid to solve our city's crime woes, meaning that we can't just think that "adding more cops" will instantly eliminate the crime factor in Birmingham, not in the long term anyway. Therefore, I feel that analyzing the deeper roots of why these types of crimes are taking place is long overdue and necessary. For that reason, I applaud the organizers of this event and I look forward to seeing the development of future initiatives that will address the other layers of our crime issues as well.